IBIS - Why the short top tube on the Ripley?

Pretty sure that I'm not alone here, wondering why did you chose the shorter TT length? Hoping you could chime in, as there are alot opinions being tossed around.

Was under the impression that the Ripley would be geared more to the spandex / hammerfest crowd, who would like to have a bit more reach? Is it to keep the wheel base shorter? I have an HD and was thinking about this as a second XC/Trail bike.

same tt length as my large 29er ht. I'm 6ft and the short top tube gives me about the feel of my ibis mojo. Can't really explain it, but it just feels so right! Less stretched out xc, more aggressive riding position. And this is purely a race bike used for spandex-clad xc hammerfests and race days

Especially with everyone using wider bars nowadays, it seems to make sense.

I was wondering the same thing myself. At 6'4", my XXL SC 29er does feel more size appropriate than my XL Mojo. Having said that, I know a ton of work went into the Rip's development, so I'll reserve judgement until I ride one.

I am 6'1" (187cm) running a Trek HiFi in XL with a 638mm top tube and 90mm stem. Not realy feeling the love for a longer stem with the Ripley XL coming in with only 625mm TT. Any takes on this for fit? Plans for an XXL?

Some people have really short legs (compared to torso), I have really long legs. Which may be why I love my Mojo and I'm very happy to see the Ripley stays with the same bike geometry that works so well.

Fogetabout the numbers and go ride one already. Then whine (or not). Then pick a bike that suits your body build and style.

IBIS - Why the short top tube on the Ripley?

When using http://bikegeo.muha.cc/ I get a reach for Trek@120 447mm compared to the calculated value for Ibis@120 440,7mm (Ibis spec says 432mm).
So, what does this mean? Will my cockpit be 6 or 15mm shorter with the Ibis (according to spec) or something else?

On the side: the BB drop is assumed the same at -45mm, and stack was calculated pretty correctly with this figure compared to Ibis spec.

Yes, I will just go down to my LBS and demo one this afternoon...Thanks for your helpfull insight.

LOL. I highly doubt any bike shops will have this available to demo in the near future. I was told that Ibis has 1000+ pre-orders for the Ripley so it could take a while before most people can throw a leg over one. So if the rumor is true and XL/M aren't going to be around until the summer, it could be a while before most demos take place.

It's very hard to respond to such a loaded question, kind of like when a friend asks you "why are you such a *&$$?" ; )

If you survey other bike brand dimensions you will see that we are not extreme in TT length.

We carefully considered the geometry.

In addition to testing with our bikes, we purchased other brands frames with long TT designs and tested them out. By the way,there is some good info on geometry and how we decided on our current specs on the Ibis Ripley web page under the tab "Story".

I know, that's why I was laughing (LOL). People keep talking about demoing the bike like every bike shop has them in stock just waiting for us to come in. Unless Ibis has reserved some Ripley's in every size and runs multiple demo tours, it will be very difficult to spend some time of these.

Yeah, I am a little disappointed with the short TT. In comparison to 26er geometry, on a 29er one has to deal with longer CS, to keep weight bias the same, the TT needs to grow a little, otherwise, one gets a more forward weight bias.
I am 6'1", and rode an XL Mojo SL for awhile, the TT was long enough on that bike, but the bike felt "tall" and I wished I was on a L frame instead, but with a longer TT. I fit a L frame perfectly in Niner's geometry, looks like I would have to go with an XL Ripley, and suffer the same "tall" feel I had with my Mojo… Sad. I'll have to wait for some bikes to show up in shops for demo to be sure, or just go with Niner…
Ibis has always had shorter TT… It is hard to breath on climbs with the torso all curled up like that. Love everything else on the Ripley, just wish I could get away with a L frame… I would run it with a 120 and an XC/endurance type build.

It's 2013 and people need to get with the program and base bike fit decisions on stack & reach, not so-called effective top tube. It's great that Ibis is providing stack & reach numbers in the geo chart so that we don't have to estimate them from calculations.

That said, the Ripley has a shorter reach than I'd like (like many these days, I prefer a short stem). The DH and AM/FR world used to emphasize shortish reach but in recent years that's been trending the other way...there's a reason so many specialized and yeti long-travel bikes have long reach (to name 2 brands). I'm not in the market for a bike like the Ripley but I'd be forced to get the XL (barely enough reach for me - I'm 6'3") and live with having a much longer seat tube than most of my current bikes.

Originally posted by bucksaw87
I still fail to see how mustaches, fixies, and PBR are ironic.

Looks like there is more stack but the reach is fairly close between the 2 bikes.

Remember though bigger wheel more offset/trail, so each of those sizes are going to feel bigger than there 26" counterpart as well.

I understand people who cant demo, Ive rarely if ever been able to demo, I got lucky bumping into people who were great at letting me try out theyre HDs.

I think people need to think a bit more than just numbers and comparing 26 to 29er numbers wont help, its a good you did that as it highlights this more.

But this is where people are tying themselves in knots they are different beasts, imo on any high end bike it comes down to experience, probably need to have ridden 29ers a bit, like Hans said great info in the story tab and goes into offset and trail etc.

Going up a size to get toptube length is fine, unless you're then stuck with a seat tube thats too tall so you cant get your dropper post low enough. I'm a hair over 6ft but with short legs so chose a medium HD140 based on my old bike which felt great. Now I've got a 18" carbon on one 456 as my winter bike and I prefer the longer toptube which is a good 20mm longer.

Maybe its just me being in between sizes but its so frustrating as Ibis make awesome bikes in all other respects, but imo the fit is slightly off.